Tuesday, November 30, 2010

My Dear Husband was taken to the hospital tonight......

  As many of you know, Timmy was hurt at work and was diagnosed with RSD/CRPS due to his injury. He has complex RSD and damage to his siatic nerve. His leg goes to sleep quite frequently and he will just fall so he walks with a cane a lot. He is in continuous pain and there are many things he can no longer do because of his RSD. His Doctor felt that things were bad enough that he told Timmy to file for disability at the age of 26. The Doctor took care of the paperwork and everything else the judge needed. Disability is not easy to get and most people do not get it on their first try but Timmy did due to his injury and everything it has caused. He now has high blood pressure, a fast heart rate, high cholesterol due to not being able to exercise, he is overweight, depression issues and the list goes on and on. His life has completely changed.
 We see the Doctor about once every three months for a basic check up and to see if he needs any medicine changes. He takes six meds daily. Usually we make changes because he needs more relief or he doesn't like a side effect. This past week we visited the Dr. again and he was very concerned about Timmy. His vitals were 158/108 and HR-157. He was keeping a red face and was staying out of breath. The Dr. ran labs, an EKG and changed his meds. He was concerned that a muscle relaxer was causing some of the issues and wanted to give him another med to replace it. He gave him a beta blocker and said it would lower his vitals and help with the pain. That was Wednesday. We picked up the meds on Wednesday Night and he started taking them Thursday Morning (Thanksgiivng).
Up until Today (Monday) he seemed to be tolerating the changes okay. This afternoon though, that all changed. He said he felt bad this Morning and I couldn't get him to eat. I thought he was just coming down with something though. He decided to get up and try to get some things done. He kissed me bye and said he was going up to his Nannys house (which I can see from my front window) to get some plywood because he wanted to make my laundry basket shelves. He was in a good mood and excited about making the shelves for me. About ten minutes later my phone rang, it was Timmy and he sounded horrible. He asked what meds I had given him Today and told me that he was dizzy. I thought he was just haivng one of th spells he has over his pain so I told him to come on home. In the two minutes it took him to get to his truck and drive back to the house, he threw up and started sweating profusely. He walked in the door and he was sweating and couldn't walk in a straight line. I sat him down, got him something to drink and started asking him questions about how he felt. Everytime I asked him something, he had a delayed response and when he did respond it was with slurred speech. I was scared to death. The first thought was a stroke because his BP stays so high. I got the stethescope, blood pressure machine, flash light, my cell phone and started my assessment. He was sweating so bad that we had two fans on and my shirt was covered from just taking his vitals. His BP was 98/69 and HR was 48. I panicked and I called his Mom. For those of you who do not know, his Mom is a RN at Central Baptist Hospital. She has been an RN for years. She just lives up the road too. She quickly came down here. I stopped her and told her that he was cold/clammy, sweating, he had thrown up, his bp was low and etc. She assessed him for less than five minutes and knew we needed to call 911. She called for the paramedics while I gathered medicines and got everyone ready. It seemed like it took the ambulance forever to get here. His Mom told me that he was grey and his mental status was scaring her pretty badly. It was scaring me too. The medics spent a very few minutes in the house. Once they seen his HR and BP, they were just concerned with getting him to the Hospital. That caused me to panick some more.
I had alreayd called my Dad to come and drive me to the hospital. Thankfully I can always count on him and he was on his way. While we waited for them we worked out details of where the kids would go and I tried to keep the kids calm. We prayed over Timmy and I tried to explain to them that they would go with Granny and Daddy would be okay. They were worried but because I was able to keep it together, they were more calm. That is why it is so important as parents that we keep ourselves together in an Emergency if you have kids. They need to see you believe it is okay before they can believe it.
My Dad arrived just as they were loading Timmy in the ambulance. He told him he was bringing me and Ty and we would be there soon. Dad said "Timmy looks really bad". If Dad says you look bad, you know you do. Dad was worried too.
I got the kids off with Granny and Dad & I headed to the hospital. I prayed all the way there believing that God had control. I have to tell you though that I was scared bad. I was afraid that I wouldn't see my Husband alive again.
It turns out that in the ambulance, on the way to the ER they had to give him Atropine to help bring up his heart rate. IT got down to 40 and that was scary low.
The ER staff done a cardiac work up, labs to check other things, a chest xray, two ekgs, a sit/satnding blood pressure test and some other tests. We went over every single med that Timmy takes, his diagnosis and problems and etc.
It is always frusterating working with an ER Dr. because he doesn't understand your history, but if your regular Dr. is not in and you are on deaths door, you have to trust them.
Timmy is very sensitive to medications. He has no tolerance for meds at all. If it says to give him two tsps, you only give him one because two will knock him out. It's that way with Nyquil or anything. As it turns out Timmy had a near fatal reaction to the new beta blocker the Doctor put him on. He got Bradycardia and his BP bottomed out which caused these issues. The Doctor said that if we would not have called the ambulance, his heart could have stopped. Luciky the atripone stopped the beta blocker from doing what it is supposed to do and that kept it from continuing to affect his heart/BP and organs.
We were told to stop all of Timmy's meds until we can reach his Doctor in the AM. He is stlll having Bradycardia issues. His HR has not been over 60 since we have been home. I am not sleeping Tonight between Ty being up with a belly ahe and Timmy being so sick, I am still up. I won't sleep until Timmy gets up for the day because if he has this problem again and is asleep, he mgiht not come out of it next time. The Bradycardia  is what is concerning myself, his mother and even the ER Doctor. He should not still be having Bradycardia issues once the Beta Blocker was out of his system. We are praying that it has not done any permanant damage to his heart.
Please continue to pray for Timmy and for the Doctors who are treating him. Pray that his Doctor will know what tests need to be done and what meds to give in order to help him feel better, keep him stabilized and treat him long term without anymore episodes like this.
Please also continue to pray for our Family. In the past six weeks I have been hospitalized and away from the kids, had a new baby, had a hemmhorage, got mastitis, the baby got put in the hospital for three days and again the kids were split from Mommy again, the baby came home and I got sick again. I've had a virus, my fibromyalgia has started flaring up, Maddie's had some heart issues, Ty's been diagnosed with Albinism, Timmy starting have worse pain and Tonight he nearly died. The DEVIL is working so hard on our Family. I've rebuked him Tonight and told him to leave our family alone. Please pray that we can get some relief from everything that is happening to our family. We need some time to adjust, enjoy each other and get our routine back. The kids need peace and contentment. Our whole Family needs routine.
I could type quite a bit more but I am so tired and it is showing in my writing. I'll have to edit this Tomorrow after I get some rest.
For now, Timmy is stable but I'm just taking it minute by minute. Please pray that he stays stable. I love my Husband very much. I cannot imagine my life without him. I do not want to have to spend the rest of my life without him. I just pray that there is no permanat damage to his heart.
Thank you all so much for the prayers/thoughts/texts/posts/emails/etc. God Bless You All. I will update after we know more.

2 comments:

  1. Praying.
    All you all need is Jesus, and then more Jesus, but you know that :)
    Praying again.
    Update when you can, but please only as it serves a purpose in your life to get it out of your mind and onto 'paper' but never at the expense of your family needing you. Blessings. God is on the throne. Praying wisdom for you all!
    K

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow Amy! I dont even know what to say after reading this! Your family is certainly going through alot of trials! I can't imagine what you must be feeling... My husband is my rock, my best friend as I am sure yours is as well. Life without him isn't even something I want to think about! I will be praying for ALL your health issues!!!! And I will continue to look for status updates!

    ReplyDelete